Waukegan man gets 15-year sentence in bar shooting

A Waukegan man charged with shooting a bouncer in a Fox Lake bar in February 2015 has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Keith Lee Jr., 23, who entered a negotiated guilty plea in late August to charges of aggravated battery with a firearm, received the sentence Tuesday in a ruling by Judge Victoria Rossetti.

Lee will receive credit for the 644 days he spent in the Lake County Jail since his arrest, and additional counts against him were dismissed as part of the plea deal. The negotiated deal had capped the sentence Lee could have received at 17 years.

If convicted of aggravated battery with a firearm at trial, Lee could have faced a sentence of up to 30 years, officials said.

According to Fox Lake Police and prosecutors, the shooting was the culmination of "a large fight" in Pug Mahones Bar at 2:45 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2015.

The 27-year-old bouncer who was shot was transported to Condell Medical Center where he was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the right shoulder.

Police said the incident began as a fight at the bar, and when bouncers attempted to break it up, shots were fired but only the one bouncer was struck.

Police said suspects in the fight and shooting fled the area in a 2005, black Ford Taurus, and were "followed by a quick-thinking patron who kept police informed on their direction of travel." The suspects were stopped by Fox Lake police on Rollins Road and Lee was taken into custody without incident, along with two other suspects in the car.

According to a release from Fox Lake police, a large fight in Pug Mahones bar resulted in both the shooting, which occurred at 2:45 a.m., and a patron being pushed...

A .38 caliber revolver was located within the vehicle and taken as evidence in this case, according to police.

During the brawl, police said a patron was injured when he was pushed down a flight of stairs on the back deck of the bar and his face struck the back of a pick-up truck. He was treated for injuries at Centegra Hospital McHenry.